


X-Men: Back to the Future with Mutants

by thebrightestbird



Category: X-Men (Movieverse), X-Men: Days of Future Past
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Angst, Fix-It, Humor, M/M, Meta, Trippy and weird
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-07-15
Updated: 2016-07-15
Packaged: 2018-07-24 03:47:29
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 8,389
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7492311
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/thebrightestbird/pseuds/thebrightestbird
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p><em>“You’ll need me as well,” Magneto says.</em>

 </p>
<p><em>“What?” Wolverine asks, because that is the last thing he needs to hear.</em>

  </p>
<p><em>“After Mystique left Charles, she came with me, and I set her on a dangerous path. A darker path.” Magneto looks down at Charles. “It’s going to take the two of us, side by side at a time when we couldn’t be further apart.”</em>

</p>
<p>Future Magneto goes back to 1973 to prevent his past self from exponentially making things worse. Because his past self would totally do something stupid like try to kill Mystique before she can be captured. DOFP fix-it</p>
            </blockquote>





	X-Men: Back to the Future with Mutants

**Author's Note:**

> This is my way of fixing the mess that Erik Lehnsherr made of everything in X-Men: Days of Future Past. 
> 
> Edit: The fic has nothing to do with the Back to the Future movies. That's just me teasing DOFP for its time travel trope.

“You’ll need me as well,” Magneto says.

“What?” Wolverine asks, because that is the last thing he needs to hear.

“After Mystique left Charles, she came with me, and I set her on a dangerous path. A darker path.” Magneto looks down at Charles. “It’s going to take the two of us, side by side at a time when we couldn’t be further apart.”

Wolverine looks to the Professor for confirmation. He merely nods.

“Great, so where do I find you?”

Magneto’s forehead wrinkles more than usual as he raises his eyebrows. “Well, it’s complicated.”

-|-

The Professor stares at his old friend. Well, _friend_ is probably too kind a word for him. Too kind and wholly not enough to describe his relationship with Erik Lehnsherr. But if the Professor is honest with himself, Raven had been the one to have a true relationship of whatever kind with him. Her respect, admiration and love for Erik was unwavering over the decades. There was no doubt in the Professor’s mind – all right, a begrudging acceptance – that the younger Erik would also be needed to convince Raven to stop her quest for vengeance.

Now that the Professor can dwell a bit more on the plan, younger Erik’s part is essential but also the part that most likely will cause the whole effort to derail.

“Erik?”

“Yes, Charles?”

“Do you remember the last time you escaped imprisonment?”

Magneto strokes his chin. “You’ll have to be a little more specific. There have been many occasions.”

The Professor can’t help but roll his eyes at the sense of pride coming from the man’s mind. “I’m talking about the time you were in the plastic cell Stryker built.”

“Oh, yes. That was a tricky escape. Managed to suck the iron from a guard’s body … ”

“Killing him in the process,” the Professor finishes.

“Yes, well, that goes without saying.”

The Professor stares hard at Magneto. “You killed a man in your escape and afterward found your way to Alkali Lake and tried to kill all humans by commanding Stryker’s son.”

“Why are you bringing this up?” Magneto is honestly perplexed. As if there had been any other course of action.

The Professor sighs. “Erik, you have a tendency toward extremism. You think the worst and take the worst possible course of action to combat what you fear.”

“Are we seriously having this debate again now, Charles. Of all times?”

“Yes, we have to have it now. Because we convinced Wolverine to break you out of the Pentagon and help stop Raven, and I fear that you will entirely ruin the plan and make things worse.”

Magneto is appalled. “How dare you, Charles? Why am I the weak link in the plan?”

The Professor evaluates the quickest way to get through to him and combat his immense ego. “All right. Let’s run through a hypothetical scenario. Try to remember yourself as you were in 1973.  Say you and I confront Raven. This is all happening after recently being revealed that it is Raven’s DNA that is used to create these monstrosities that are close to making all of us extinct. Now, Raven is right there within your reach. Again, if she kills Trask, the government will get ahold of her, and we will be destroyed. What would 30-something Erik Lehnsherr do?”

Magneto shakes his head as if to tell the Professor he is being childish. “I would talk to her. Explain the situation as I understand it. Tell her I’m sorry for the acrimony between us and grab the nearest weapon to kill her before she has a chance to be captured.”

The Professor blankly stares at him, waiting for Magneto’s admittedly well-aged brain (he’s still sharp, but things have slowed somewhat) to become aware of what he just said.

Magneto almost drops his helmet when realization hits. “Bloody hell. I need to be stopped.”

The Professor can’t help but feel a wave fondness for the man at that moment. “Finally, I manage to convince you I’m right about something, and it only took the end of the world to do it.”

Magneto isn’t amused. “What’s the plan, Charles? You never do bother to hide your arrogance when you have one.”

“We send you back to your younger self.”

Kitty emits an angry groan. “Professor,” she says through gritted teeth, “I told you no one’s mind will survive that trip. I’m surprised even Logan can handle it.”

“I’ll help you with my powers. Amplify your abilities so that won’t be a concern.”

Bobby cuts off whatever response Kitty might have had. “If you were so sure you would be able to do that, then you should have been the one to go back as you originally planned.”

“Yes, well, I’m not entirely sure I will succeed, but we have no more options left. We have to put all of our efforts into this. It is necessary for Erik to go back to 1973 and help Logan.”

“But why don’t we pull Logan back and I replace him?” Magneto asks.

The Professor shakes his head. “No, he’s already too entrenched in what is going on in the past. Pulling him out might disrupt proceedings in unforeseeable ways.”

“Professor, I have to ask,” Kitty says, “I know you’re powerful, but are you truly that powerful? Can you negate what I know would normally happen if we do this. Magneto’s mind could be destroyed.”

The Professor smiles ruefully. “My dear, have you ever wondered how I came back to life?”

Bobby jumps up at that. “Oh my God! That’s right. You were dead. How could I have forgotten that?”

“You forgot because I made you forget. I made everyone forget that bit of unpleasantness because I really didn’t want to explain it. Needless to say, it was an ordeal. Involved swapping minds and a terrible film director. Messy. But my point is that if I can come back from the dead, I think I might have a chance at successfully handling this.”

And none of the individuals in the room have any real argument against that.

“Fine,” Kitty says, “let’s do this. Magneto, climb on top of Logan.”

Magneto, again, is appalled. “Is that really necessary, child?”

“I need your head in the vicinity of my hands, so yes, lie on top of the hairy Canadian.”

Magneto looks to the Professor for a possible out. “I’m sorry, old friend,” he says. “There’s very little dignity to be had when trying to prevent the end of the world. At least you’re not naked like Raven usually was.”

Small mercies, Magneto supposes. He turns to the reposed, hulking frame of Wolverine and climbs atop. He lies back as best he can, and this is by far the most uncomfortable he’s ever been. And, like he’d mentioned, he’s been imprisoned quite a lot.

The Professor rolls to his side, by his side, where he should have been all along through the decades. “All those years wasted fighting each other, Charles,” Magneto says and reaches out a hand. “To have a precious few of them back.”

The Professor holds the hand firmly. “Don’t waste them, Erik.”

Magneto shuts his eyes and screams.

-|-

Magneto wakes up on the floor of what appears to be the cabin of a small plane. His younger body must have collapsed as he took over.

“You all right?” Magneto hears someone ask.

He looks up to see the Wolverine in a seat looking not much different than he’s used to in his timeline.

Or _their_ timeline, he corrects himself. He almost forgot that this may be the 1973 body of Wolverine, but this is the version of the mutant he has fought over the years and begrudgingly grown to respect.

But he’ll never tell him that.

“Did you even bother to try to catch me?” Magneto asks.

“No.”

Of course. “It’s good to know your boorish charms accompanied you to the past, Wolverine.”

The use of his codename piques his interest. “Excuse me?”

“It’s me, Wolverine. Old … me, so to speak.” He frowns.

Realization hits. “Magneto? Future Magneto?”

“Yes! That’s a much better description. Future, most powerful, best looking Magneto.”

“Wouldn’t go that far, bub.”

Magneto scowls. At least, he thinks he scowls. This hasn’t been his face in a while. “Is there a mirror around?”

“What? Why?”

“Oh, please. Don’t tell me the first thing you didn’t do when you woke up was look at yourself in a mirror.”

Wolverine shrugs. “Sure, yeah. But there’s no time for that now. Why are you here? How?”

“Don’t concern yourself too much with the how. You know Charles is powerful.”

“Sure, but Kitty said – ”

“Take what you think you already believe the level of his powers to be and amplify that by infinity. Simply, Charles is a god. Now, the reason I’ve come here is to merely prevent the slightest possibility of my younger self ruining the whole plan. Really, only the tiniest, most insignificant possibility. Again, no need for concern.”

Wolverine’s not surprised. When he and the Professor said to break Magneto out of the Pentagon, Wolverine’s first instinct was to laugh at their faces. Really hard laughing. He doesn’t typically like disrespecting the elderly, but he almost did it. “So, the best person to stop you in 1973 is the you of the future because nobody else knows better how much of an asshole you’ve always been?”

Magneto lets out a cursory indignant huff, but … “Yes,” he answers. “That’s more or less the reasoning.”

“So, do we tell Charles that you’re not the you we just broke out?”

At the mention of Charles, Magneto frantically looks around for the man. “Where is he?”

“We’re not in the air yet. He’s still outside talking to Peter.”

Magneto dares to get up enough off the floor to look through the door’s opening. He sees a gray head of hair. “ _Peter?!_ My son? You got my son involved?”

“Hey, he was the only one I knew who’d be around and had the skills to break you out.”

Magneto sighs. “I don’t suppose he at least pretended to hesitate at the opportunity to break into a highly secure U.S. government facility?”

Wolverine scoffs. “Of course not. He’s your kid.”

“Where is his sister, anyway? Wait, forget I asked. Movie studios. Terrible, greedy entities. Moving on.” Magneto rubs his forehead in dismay. “Wolverine, under no circumstance do you reveal to Charles my current condition.”

“Why?”

“You have to trust me.”

Wolverine stays silent for a few beats. Then starts roaring with laughter.

Before Charles can be concerned enough to investigate Wolverine’s sudden good mood, Magneto pulls the mutant down to the floor by his … belt buckle? (What happened to the lovely metal skeleton?) “I’m serious, Wolverine. I can’t have Charles know I’m not the Erik he knows.”

“Again, bub, I’m gonna have to ask you why.”

“Because I need this chance.”

“For what?”

Magneto shuts his eyes for a moment and takes a deep breath. “I need to make things right with Charles.”

Wolverine doesn’t say anything in response. Just silently implores him to explain further.

“What was his condition when you found him?” Magneto asks.

“I wouldn’t have believed it if I hadn’t seen it myself, but he’s angry. Bitter.” Wolverine stops to come up with what would really best describe 1973 Charles Xavier. “He’s not the man he’s supposed to be.”

Magneto lets his guilt show. “I did that.”

Before he can explain further, Charles boards the plane and shuts the door. He gives a suspicious glance at Magneto and Wolverine on the floor but first ducks his head into the cockpit to tell Hank to get them going.

“Please, Wolverine” is all Magneto has time to whisper before they pull themselves up and get to their seats.

Charles drops himself into the nearest seat beyond the cockpit. A table separates him from Magneto.

The small airplane wastes no time to ascend. Magneto can’t quite work up the courage to look straight at Charles, but he dares to take a quick glance, and he’s getting stared at. Hard.

Once the plane is level at the optimum altitude, Magneto finally dares to speak. The first question is the one he actually doesn’t have an answer for. He knew Charles was without his powers during this time, but he never honestly revealed the reasons to Magneto. “How did you lose them?”

Charles doesn’t hesitate with an answer. “The treatment for my spine affects my DNA.”

Despite the guilt he’s always carried for Charles’ paralysis, the knowledge that the solution to returning the ability to walk meant sacrificing his powers makes anger flare in him. Mutation should never be something to sacrifice.

He looks over to tell Charles just that, but that means he gets his first real look at the man. He looks so tired. “Can you sleep at night with that decision?”

Charles mistakes his intentions with the, admittedly, poorly worded question. “What do you know of it?”

The memories of this time are flooding back with Charles’ look of disdain. “I’ve lost my fair share,” Magneto responds, the familiar feel of anger growing. How dare he question his pain?

“Ha. Dry your eyes, Erik. It doesn’t justify what you’ve done.”

“You’ve no idea what I’ve done.” Fighting with Charles has become too much like second nature.

“I know you’ve taken the things that mean the most to me.”

Oh, the words are out of Magneto’s mouth before he can think better of it. “Well, then maybe you should have fought harder for them!”

“If you want a fight, Erik, I will give you a fight!” And Charles is up and charging for him. “You abandoned me! You took her away, and you abandoned me!”

Charles’ fury awakens rationality. The 1973 Erik Lehnsherr had been carrying the losses of not just his parents, but his mutant brothers and sisters too. Angel, Azazel, Emma, Banshee. All experimented on, along with countless others. That list will come to include Mystique, who arose from her time of torture irrevocably changed. Then there was Charles, who was locked away in his house without his powers. On the surface, that was all Charles’ own doing, and 1973 Erik would have latched onto that logic, throwing it at his face. Magneto – future Erik – knows better. Like he told Wolverine, he did this. In one way or another, he was responsible for all of their imprisonments, including his own, and the living hells they endured at the time.

“Erik! Erik, stop!”

Erik jolts out of his reverie upon hearing Charles shout and seeing him suddenly fall back. The plane is in a dive, and, well, shit, he’s the one causing it.

“Sorry! Sorry!” he shouts as he immediately rights the plane. He rushes to Charles, who is lying prone on the table. “My apologies! Sorry, I am so sorry. I wasn’t doing that on purpose.”

Charles is looking at him as if he were mad, turning away from Erik as quickly as possible to escape to the cockpit.

Wolverine flicks a lighter open and closed. “You wanna pick that shit up?”

Erik ignores him and sits back down. It’s looking more and more like his future self will be the one who fucks this whole thing up.

-|-

Erik carries the chessboard to the table in front of Charles, hoping a game will help promote dialogue between them as it has always done.

Charles gives him a disbelieving glare, but Erik pushes forward. “Fancy a game? It’s been a while.”

“I’m not in the mood for games, thank you.”

Erik is going to have to coax him out of this seemingly permanent foul mood. “You really should shave. The hippie look doesn’t suit you.”

Charles is aghast. “I-, what?!”

“I mean, look at me. If I can manage to be cleanly shaven and handsomely styled while in a plastic prison with no access to metal or sharp objects, then you have no excuse, my friend.”

And that just perplexes Charles. “How did you manage that, anyway?”

“Isn’t it obvious?”

“No, it’s damn well not obvious. You just said you had nothing metal or sharp ever allowed near you. Did they wax you?” He cringes at the thought. “But that wouldn’t explain your haircut.”

“It’s not important. What is important is that we find the first barber available in Paris for you.” Erik’s not joking. The beard needs to go. The hair on his head, on the other hand, that will only require a good conditioning and trim. It’s quite refreshing to see Charles with hair. He had almost forgotten it had ever been possible.

“You’re really not going to tell me? This is going to bother me for quite some time.” Finally, a grin breaks out on his face. “I’ll have you know I turn quite a few blue-haired ladies’ heads at the post office looking like this.”

“Oh, I’m sure.” Erik has _missed_ him. Their younger selves, while each was dedicated to the causes they believed to be more important above all other things, squandered what should have been as natural as their powers. Growing old apart from him is something he hopes to not repeat. He should start by clearing up the most recent misconception Charles probably has. “I didn’t kill the president.”

Charles’ grin immediately disappears. “The bullet curved, Erik.”

“Because I was trying to stop it.”

“Seriously? Since when can you not stop something like a bullet? Ten years ago you were trying to get me to shoot you in the head to show off that very ability.”

That memory, so precious to him, further fuels Erik’s conviction to make Charles understand. “I was trying to save him because he was one of us. The shooter wasn’t going to use any normal bullet to kill a mutant president.”

Charles scoffs, and for a moment, Erik thinks it’s out of disbelief.

“You must think me so foolish,” Charles says instead. “You’ve always said they’d come after us.”

Charles is even worse than Erik had imagined. His faith in everyone sounds nearly depleted. An “I told you so” would be appropriate at the moment, but there is no victory in seeing a Charles Xavier without hope.

With Erik’s hindsight, he can say that, yes, he was right. Somewhat. Before Raven killed Trask, there were certainly many men like the scientist who were targeting mutants. But they were scattered, unorganized. Trask had the most connections of any of the men Erik had encountered to actually pull off the heinous crimes against mutantkind. Once Raven killed Trask, well, if humans weren’t afraid of mutants before, the killing gave them their excuse to be.

“I never imagined they’d use Raven’s DNA to do it. But she is the most unique of us all.” Erik recalls the origins of his relationship with Mystique. The name had suited her so well. “I couldn’t turn her away when she set her sights on me. I suspect it was much the same when you two were young. And as much as I don’t like to compare us to humans, it seems that they will use her as well. Except it will be to a terrifying degree.”

Charles looks at him sharply. “I can’t speak for your relationship with Raven, but I at no point used her. I raised her, and she was not capable of killing.”

“Oh, please, Charles. You didn’t raise her. You grew up together, and that just illustrates my point. The idea that you could control her, she needed to break away from that despite her love for you.” As straight-forward as Erik is being, he will give Charles back a little bit of what he really is searching for: Knowledge that Raven never stopped caring about him.

“Your sense of certainty about it all is unnerving,” Charles says (Erik wonders if he is beginning to suspect that he is not quite the Erik Lehnsherr he knows). “Since you have been so observant about my relationship with Raven, I might as well offer you the same kind of clarity. You turned her into a soldier for _your_ cause. You got inside her head, and yes I know the irony of my accusation, but it doesn’t make it any less true.” He pauses to drain his tumbler and reaches for the decanter and another glass. He pours the liquid into both, pushing one toward Erik. “But you were only offering what she was ready for, that next step that all of us, mutant and human, strive to reach with another individual: A companionship of trust, partnership, and intimacy.”

Erik bites his tongue and sips his liquor. It’s all true, and while he loves and adores Mystique, would never regret experiencing those things with her, he knows that if Cuba hadn’t happened, it was certain other people in their lives 10 years ago who were meant to take that next step with them.

“You’re quite right about me and Raven,” Charles continues. “She was my sister, we grew up together, so it is not quite a coincidence that at the same time you entered our lives … I was ready for all of that as well.”

There’s the confirmation that Charles knows the entirety of the opportunities that were lost that day. And he’s not even the one from the future.

“Would you still like to play a game?” Charles asks.

Erik looks Charles directly in the eyes. “No, Charles. I believe we’re through playing games.”

-|-

They get to Paris and the Hotel Royale with plenty of time to spare before the scheduled start of proceedings. Raven is in all likelihood already here, disguised and prepared to strike. Despite reservations about allowing Erik to stray from any of them, they agree that four men dressed in street clothes stalking around the hotel together isn’t very inconspicuous. They each carry a walkie talkie and split up to comb the building for her.

Each man hopes he’s the one to find Raven, and each is reviewing what they will say to her. Charles wants to reiterate how he made a promise to protect her, and he’s only here to make good on that. He’ll have to make clear that this has nothing to do with controlling her. Unfortunately, it is her actions that lead to the need for him to have to intervene and protect her, but best not bring that up. Protect her and bring her home. Simple as that.

Wolverine’s gonna punch her the moment he lays eyes on her. Wait, that’s not right. He keeps needing to remind himself that this isn’t the Mystique he’s fought over the years. She’s young and mostly admirable up to this point. He can’t blame her for seeking revenge for the deaths of her friends. God knows he’s never shied away from a good ol’ fashion revenge killing. Okay, that’s good. Start by sympathizing with her. Say something like, “Kid, I would gladly help you kill the bastard, but doing that means the end of all life on Earth. Even I know that’s when it’s just not worth it.” And if that doesn’t work, there’s always the backup plan: claws _and_ punching.

Hank wishes he could say that he’s matured over the last 10 years. That unlike Charles, he’s come to terms with Raven’s departure. As chemically compatible as they were, philosophically, there was no match. There could have been no cohabitation, no cohesive bond between them. He understands why they never had a chance. But chemistry is something not to be ignored. And even with the most difficult equation, differences can be negotiated, a balance can be found. And there he goes mixing up science and math metaphors. Simply, he just wants to say he’s sorry. His lack of maturation keeps him from losing hope that Raven will return the sentiment.

Erik doesn’t have much time to ponder what he’ll say to Raven because he’s looking straight at her in one of the main meeting rooms. He’s known her long enough to recognize her in any disguise. This one is of a Vietnamese general. There are two Vietnamese men with her at the table.

“Hello, my dear,” he says.

She stops pretending to be in deep thought over some papers and looks up. She can’t hide her shock but recovers quickly. “Erik! It’s been a long time. I did not know you’d be in Paris. Come in. Let’s talk for a moment while we can.”

She glances at her companions and says something commanding in Vietnamese. They get up to leave them alone in the room. Once they’re gone, she changes into her natural form. “How the hell are you here?!”

“Broke out of prison. Caught a flight. Stole a car.”

“You know what I mean. Not that I’m not glad you’re out.” She hugs him then. It’s a familiar embrace, but Erik melts into it, all the same.

“I know what you’re planning to do here, Mystique.”

“You’re here to help? No, wait. Seriously, how are you here?”

That would be the moment his walkie talkie chirps with Charles’ voice. “Still no sign of her. Anyone else have better luck. Over.”

Mystique immediately recognizes the voice. “Charles? Charles is here?”

Hank and Wolverine quickly report their negatives and before Raven can comment on their voices, Erik throws in his negative to avoid suspicion.

“Mystique, darling. Yes, Charles and I are here for you.”

Her face is nothing but confusion.

“You can’t kill Trask. I know what he did, but you can’t go through with it.”

And then it morphs into betrayal. “You of all people should know that he needs to pay for what he did to the others.”

People will be coming into the room soon. Erik doesn’t have time for gentle or tactful persuasion. “When you kill Trask, the humans will capture you. They will use your DNA to hunt us down and wipe us out.”

“What? Why would you think that would happen?”

“Look, I know your methods. You must have investigated Trask. You know about those machines he’s making?”

She nods.

“They are only the beginning, my dear. They will evolve into what will essentially be giant you’s. They will adapt to all opponents to the point of being unstoppable.”

She gapes at him for a moment. “What did they do to you in prison? Did you actually go insane?”

Erik lets out an exasperated breath. “Raven, I’m from the future!”

She looks incredibly unimpressed. All right, wrong choice of words.

Before he can say anything else, they both hear footsteps. Raven quickly returns to the form of the Vietnamese man. Erik ducks behind the door.

“Ah, general. You’re early for our little impromptu meeting,” Trask says. Accompanying him is a man with a briefcase.

“I always fully prepare myself for my next move.” As soon as she’s finished saying the words, she transforms yet again to her true form. She roundhouse kicks the taller man, who had managed to just pull out his weapon. It slides onto the table, and she flips gracefully on top to retrieve it and point it at Trask.

Just as Erik is moving from behind the doors, they all hear Charles shout “Raven!” as he and the other men approach the entrance. That distracts them both, allowing the man she just knocked to the ground to fire his stun gun. Erik reverses the electrodes onto the man as quickly as possible, and Trask slips away. No one thinks to go after him because Raven’s convulsing on the table.

Hank and Charles go to her, but before Erik can join them, he notices that Wolverine’s attention is on the man on the ground.

“Wolverine?” Erik steps closer to get a good look at what has him so fascinated. Bloody hell, it’s William Stryker.

Erik’s blood begins to boil, and from what he’s observing from Wolverine, the man is taking the recognition much worse. Erik hears a faint voice in his head. It’s Charles back in their time. _Fight it, you two. Don’t let Stryker win again._

He looks to Wolverine to see if he’s heard Charles too. Wolverine gives him a jerky nod as he gets off the floor. He goes to Stryker’s body and surprisingly pulls off the electrodes, only to follow up with an even more surprising knockout punch to the temple.

Erik allows himself a brief rush of satisfaction at the sight.

Wolverine rights himself quickly. “We need to think of a way out fast. Security team’s coming.”

Erik’s eyes quickly find the gun Raven was holding on the table next to her. He commands it to his hand.

“Erik …” Mystique gasps.

“Erik! What are you doing?” Charles demands.

“Securing our future,” he says as he fires a shot at Mystique’s leg.

She screams from pain. Hank tackles him, but Erik is skilled enough to continue with his task. With only the metal of the bullet in her leg, he drags her across the table and throws her out the window.

“What the fuck?” Wolverine exclaims.

Hank is pinning Erik to the ground and beginning to hulk out. No, Erik corrects himself. That’s the large, green fella’s thing. A shame Hank never thought of the phrasing. He _was_ the first to do the whole experimenting on oneself only to have it backfire and turn yourself into that which you most fear. But Erik really shouldn’t be wasting so much time pondering such things because he’s about to get clawed in the face.

“Hank, wait!” Charles stops him.

Hank holds his arm in midswipe, but he’s definitely waiting for Charles to give him a good reason not to follow through.

Charles looks into Erik’s face, letting him know he understands. “He was helping Raven escape capture.”

They hear the crowd outside exclaiming and screaming. At the same, a few of the security team members finally reach the meeting room. Hank turns and quickly incapacitates the first two, followed by some quick action by Wolverine to do the same for the three that follow. Strangely, no more seem to be coming.

“They must have been diverted outside to go after Raven,” Charles reasons.

Hank quickly bounds to the window to see if the assumption is correct. “There’s police everywhere. They seem to still be frantically looking. I think she got a way.”

Erik breathes a sigh of relief.

“Come on,” Wolverine says. “We need to leave while we still can.”

-|-

Raven may have escaped capture, but that also means she escaped the four of them. Erik hopes she understands he was saving her.

Regrouping is their best option, so they fly back to Westchester in total silence.

Once they’re past the threshold of the mansion, however, Logan isn’t afraid of vocalizing what they’ve all been brooding over. “Everything’s more fucked than it already was.”

“Yes, thank you, Wolverine.” Erik lets the codename slip, but before he can worry about Charles catching on to its familiar use, Charles moans and practically collapses onto the stairs. Erik rushes to his side. “Charles, what’s wrong?”

Hank answers for him. “His treatment is wearing off. I’ll be right back. Hold on, Charles.”

“So many voices,” Charles says while brushing back Erik’s attempts to help him sit upright on a step. “Don’t you dare pretend you want to help me now!”

Erik flinches. He, of course, does want to help him now. He wanted to help him back then on the beach too. Guilt keeps him from daring to presume he could ever be what Charles needs. It was the same back then. It’s the same now. It remains the same in the future.

“As these go,” Charles pats his legs then holds his head, “ _this_ comes back. They _all_ come back.”

Erik is on the verge of tears.

Wolverine comes closer to the men. “Erik, tell him.”

Erik’s first instinct is to shush him, lie and pretend there’s nothing to tell.

But Charles is barely holding himself together. Wolverine’s right.

“Charles, we need you to not take your medication. And before you unleash a tirade about what right I have to ask this of you, well, first of all, you’re right. I have no right to ask you to give up the ability to walk for the sake of you suffering and facing the pain of all those voices returning to your head. But you can handle this. You survived it once and mastered it. You have to face the fact that without your powers, you have managed to be paralyzed in a whole new way.”

Charles is shaking less, focused on Erik. “When were planning to tell me?”

Erik won’t play dumb. Charles has latched onto his mind now. He knows the truth. “I was hoping we could square away the situation with Raven first.”

“You bastard, no you weren’t. You were hoping I would forgive the you of the current time. For some reason, you thought that would make it all more significant.”

“It sort of would, Charles. I have lived a long life, a life without you, your forgiveness or your love. I didn’t want you to do anything out of pity for an old man.”

Charles touches his temple, a signal that he’s digging through his head now without restraint. “Oh, God, Erik,” he says, wetly. The tears are without restraint as well. His facial expressions shift with all the memories he encounters. He mutters a “How could you?” once, but mostly is quiet for a minute. Then he rips his hand away as if he’d been burned. “I don’t want your suffering! I don’t want your future!”

“Charles! _Charles!_ ” Erik says with as much force as possible to interrupt any further outburst from Charles. He moves his head to capture Charles’ eyes. “You once told me that true power lies between rage and serenity. You’ve known nothing but pain and rage for these years, just like I had then. But in my future, you find your serenity eventually. I wasn’t the one then to help you find it. Allow me to be selfish and be the one to help you now.” Erik grabs hold of his hands, fighting the push back, and places them on his head. “Look past my future. Find _yours_.”

-|-

Erik closes his eyes, relaxing and opening his mind as wide as he can for Charles. Having one version of Charles inside his head is overwhelming; to have two, conversing through him, it’s like a fire. Every synapse is awake, dedicated to serving the needs of Charles Xavier. He can catch snippets of the conversation Charles is having with himself. He gets more of what the younger Charles is feeling rather than any actual words. At first there’s anger, then overwhelming fear. But all of that suddenly washes away with a wave of hope cooling his burning brain.

He opens his eyes to see Charles doing the same. “Did you find what you were looking for?” Erik asks.

“Yes,” he says in that charming, nuanced way of his. “I do believe I have.”

And then Charles is kissing him.

-|-

Professor X and Magneto are kissing. That’s something happening right now in front of Logan, being seen with Logan’s eyes, and unfortunately, being smelled with Logan’s keen-as-hell nose.

Fucking pheromones.

Luckily for Logan’s nose, Hank barrels back into the foyer and interrupts them. “I doubled the dose since you missed a treatment,” he says.

Without looking away from Erik, Charles asks Hank to get his wheelchair.

Logan goes to help him, giving the two a moment more alone to swap spit on the stairs.

-|-

“Why didn’t you shut her down?” Hank asks.

Charles practically rips Cerebro’s headpiece off. “She fought me the entire way, and I’m still weak.”

“Could you at least tell where she was going?” Logan asks.

He takes a breath, recalling the confrontation. “Washington.”

-|-

“Perhaps Hank is right. I thought it had been her time in captivity that had hardened her, made her capable of killing. Maybe, instead, this was the dark path she was always going to take.”

Charles doesn’t hesitate with a response. “Just because someone stumbles, loses their way, doesn’t mean they’re lost forever. No, I don’t believe that theory. I cannot believe that is who she is, and you two,” Charles waves a hand between Erik and Logan, “all of us, really, should know better, and that with help, there is a way out of the darkness.”

-|-

It’ll take Hank an hour to ready the plane and get the flight clearances in order, so Charles and Erik take the opportunity to play chess in the study.

As soon as Erik steps into the room, he’s bombarded with memories of the two of them in 1962, the night before they went to Cuba. The memory is so clear that he realizes they’re not quite his but Charles’ projected and overlaid on his own.

“I’m sorry, old friend,” Charles says. “The memory is imprinted on my mind like light on film. It’s why I never come here.”

“It’s a bit morbid of us, don’t you think? Playing a game of chess and arguing the night before we, again, change history. Or the future,” he says with a smirk, “depending on your perspective.”

“Will we be arguing, Erik?” Charles asks as they take their positions at the chess board.

“We might be once you hear my request.”

Charles knits his eyebrows, but remains silent, setting up the dusty chessboard.

“I need my helmet.”

Charles halts his movements. He won’t look at Erik, but the look of betrayal on his face is plain to see.

“Oh, Charles. You forget I’m not your Erik from 1973. I’ve had that helmet on my head through all of the most important moments of my life. Through the victories and the losses. Its primary purpose stopped being to keep you out of my head long ago, and its origins with Shaw are insignificant. It is Magneto as much as I am.”

Betrayal falls from Charles’ face. Disappointment takes its place. “So, you’re still Magneto. Are you destined to repeat your origin story despite fighting to change Raven’s?”

Erik has no response; he simply sets up his side of the board.

“The truth is that you stopped being Magneto thousands of words ago.”

“Words? What words?”

“ _On the plane_ when you first arrived in the past. You stopped thinking of yourself as Magneto and remembered what being Erik Lehnsherr was like.”

Right, when he’d almost crashed the plane after being confronted with the pain he’d caused Charles and Raven. He’s reminded that his fellow soldiers for the cause are gone. Is there a Magneto without his Brotherhood of Mutants?

“The narrator has been calling you Erik ever since,” Charles says. “Maybe you should listen to her.”

Erik looks down at the chessboard. Charles has the white pieces, so he has already made his first move. “I suppose I already know what a lifetime wearing the helmet is like.” Erik moves a pawn. “Let’s see how things go without it.”

Charles’ smile is blinding.

“But for the record,” Erik can’t help but add, “I would have looked amazing breaking into the Pentagon to get it back. Lots of strutting and hand gestures.”

Charles snorts a laugh.

“Do you at least have a purple hat I can borrow?”

-|-

“Can you find her, Charles?” Erik asks.

Charles casts his net wide, absorbing and discarding minds as quickly as he can. “Near the stage where Trask is. She’s dressed as a Secret Service agent.”

Erik, Logan, and Hank run as much as they can with the crowd around.

 _This is for you, brothers and sisters_ , Raven says to herself as she points her gun at Trask.

 _Raven, don’t!_ Charles sends to her.

She freezes, but not because she’s surprised. “Let me go, Charles! Get out of my head!”

Despite the pomp and circumstance ensuing around him, Trask hears her. His confusion over being the target of the agent is cleared up almost immediately when he sees the three men he encountered in Paris the last time he was almost shot. He turns on his mutant detection device to verify what he already knows. This is too good of an opportunity to pass up.

The Sentinels roar to life all around them, emitting white smoke and thunderous noise. They are magnificent when moving in sync. The audience applauds, as they should.

The president turns to Trask. “What the hell are you doing?”

“There are mutants present, Mr. President. I am simply commanding the Sentinels to do what they were made for.”

If Raven could have moved, she probably would have lost her focus in favor of the Sentinels rising into the air. Charles isn’t taking any chances, however, holding her in place despite doing his best to roll his wheelchair toward her over the damn grass.

The three men stop short of reaching Raven. Hank yells, “Erik! Can you stop them?”

“They’re not metal!”

The Sentinels’ cannons shift downward. “Shit,” Wolverine says, “they’re targeting!”

Erik evaluates where there’s metal and drags whatever he can sense with him as he floats into the air. If the Sentinels aren’t made of metal, he’ll just have to correct that design flaw.

The cannons follow him up as he becomes their closest mutant to target.  Erik will have to do this faster than should actually be possible. He concentrates to liquefy all the metal as he sprays it onto the Sentinels and drops them from the sky indiscriminately.

That was a mistake. Luckily, most of the crowd had managed to escape the chaos. Logan and Hank easily dodge the falling behemoths. But Charles … _oh, God_.

Raven breaks Olympic records somersaulting and crashing her body into Charles’ to knock him out of the wheelchair and out of harm’s way.

Erik immediately swoops down to address the offending robot near them. The liquid metal wouldn’t have reaching every part of all of the Sentinels, which means they are very much still active despite plummeting to the ground. He does his best to rip it apart, using other pieces of metal to wrap around it. Hank and Logan, meanwhile, have chosen a Sentinel apiece to take apart with their bare hands, claws, and teeth. After Erik’s done dispatching with his first machine, he turns his power onto the last two.

“Charles?!” Raven screams. “Charles, are you all right?!”

Instead of immediately addressing his condition, Charles gives her his most pleading look. “Raven, please. Don’t make us the enemy today.”

Raven watches the men as they continue to battle the Sentinels. “Look around you, Charles. We already are!”

“No. All that’s happened today is that the fugitive mutant known as Magneto has saved hundreds of lives by taking down the faulty weapons of mass destruction. And what they’re seeing is two mutant men with claws and amazing tenacity fighting to help him finish the job. And what the humans will most touchingly remember from this day is the blue mutant woman who saved a man in a wheelchair and who would continue to shield and protect him until she knew he would truly be safe when it is all over. We’ve shown them a better path.”

Raven’s tears fall onto Charles’ cheek.

“I’ve been trying to control you ever since the day we met, and look where that’s gotten us.”

Raven looks away at that but stays close, listening.

“Everything that happens now is in your hands,” Charles says as the men finally finish their work in close succession. One Sentinel falls after another after another. “I have faith in you, Raven,” he finishes, softly.

The men go to Raven and Charles as soon as they’re certain the Sentinels will stay down. Erik kneels to the ground with them and looks at Charles to check on him. He nods at Erik’s unspoken inquiry and holds up his hand. Erik takes it, kisses it, and looks to Raven.

She’s staring at them in wonder. “Well, my dear,” Erik begins while using his free hand to wipe some of her tears from her cheek, “have you made a decision?”

She had, but unfortunately for Erik and Logan, they don’t get any vocal affirmation because everything goes suddenly dark.

-|-

“Erik? Erik!”

Erik opens his eyes to find himself slumped over a desk. “…What?”

“Erik, look at me,” he hears someone tell him.

He slowly lifts his head toward the voice to find Raven’s concerned face staring down. “What happened?” she asks. “You better not be having a stroke, Lehnsherr. You don’t get to do that to me. I’ve told you before, you don’t die. Ever.”

As awareness sets in, he considers her words and supposes she’s more right than she realizes. He really doesn’t get to die.

“My dear, what year is it?”

Raven gives him her patented “duh” look but answers.

Erik breaks into the biggest smile he can manage. “It worked,” he says in wonder.

“What worked? What is wrong with you?”

“You didn’t do it. You didn’t kill Trask.”

Raven gasps at the name. “You’re back,” she says, barely above a whisper. Suddenly, however, her faces changes into one of fear. “Oh, shit. Logan! We have to get to him before he wakes up disoriented and breaks a kid.”

She’s up and out the door with Erik as closely behind as he can manage. Damn, he had hoped that if the world really was saved, aging wouldn’t be a thing this go-round.

They encounter Logan leaving an office with Charles. Wolverine’s wearing a dazed expression that Erik’s certain he too has. “Fuck me, Mags. It actually worked! Even better than we could have hoped too. No more Sentinels, no mutant cure, disco’s dead, Jean’s alive … Goddamn, everything’s better.”

Charles chuckles at Wolverine’s exuberance, but he’s looking at Erik. “Welcome back, old friend.”

Erik practically collapses at Charles’ feet and hugs the man’s knees to keep him upright. Charles gently pulls Erik toward him as he leans forward so they can touch foreheads.

“So, Charles,” Erik asks after a long moment of nothing but breathing the same air. “What else did I miss?”

With a smile, Charles lifts a hand to touch Erik’s temple. He takes notice of a gold ring on the hand before slipping back to the last moment he recalls in 1973.

-|-

Erik and Logan collapse in unison. Erik was luckily on the ground. Logan wasn’t so lucky.

Hank goes to check on him. Logan’s not quite out of it, and when he sees the face of blue fur looking at him, he recoils in terror. “Gah! What the-, wha-, _what the hell?!_ ”

Hank doesn’t dare touch him. “Logan, it’s me! It’s Hank!”

“What? I don’t know you. Where the hell am I? What the hell happened?”

Meanwhile, Erik’s managed to refocus on his surroundings without as much fuss. First seeing Charles helped, albeit a bloody and battered Charles, which is concerning but not as concerning as losing what appears to be large chunks of time. The last thing he remembers is being on Charles’ airplane preparing to leave for Paris.

“Logan,” Charles calls out, “you don’t remember us?”

“Logan? Pal, I don’t know Logan, you, your partner, your blue buddies –” He stops himself and looks around. “I-, I need to get out of here.” He starts running away.

Hank moves to follow. “Don’t, Hank,” Charles says. “Let him go. He has a hard journey ahead that he’s going to have face alone for a while. As for Erik,” Charles pauses and waits for the man to look at him, “I believe he is our more immediate concern.”

Erik has been recalling more of his conversation on the plane with Logan and the dire circumstances that sent him to the past. “Did we save the future?” he asks Charles.

Charles lets out a huff. “Yes, my friend. We did indeed.”

“Wait, wait, wait,” Raven says. “You mean that shit about you being from the future was true?”

“Me? From the future?” Erik asks.

“Uhhh, yes, Erik. I’m afraid you don’t remember because your future self took over your mind just as Logan’s future self took over his.”

“Is that why that guy freaked out?” Raven asks.

“Yes, Raven. I’ll get you up to speed later. For now, I’m trying to avoid succumbing to agony over Erik not remembering what’s transpired between us over the last few days.”

“What happened between us?”

“Erik, have you noticed yet that you’re holding my hand?”

He looks. “Oh, so I am.”

“You were holding it for a very symbolic, poignant reason.”

Erik replies, breathlessly, “I can believe that.”

Hank is finally shedding his fur and losing the blue hue. “Charles, please, can you show him the memories of the time he’s lost already?”

“Hank’s right,” Raven says. “Just show him.”

“But this isn’t the future Erik. Would it count?” Charles angsts, prettily.

“Yes!” Raven and Hank say together.

“Seriously, Charles,” Raven begins to explain. “I know this guy probably better than you do now. If the future version of him hadn’t come back, this Erik – I mean, don’t get me wrong, I love you and your handsome, chiseled face – but _this Erik_ could have gone and done something really over the top and stupid.”

“Like drop a stadium around the White House and use the Sentinels against everyone,” Hank helpfully supplies.

“Yes! Thank you, Hank,” Raven says. “I am so grateful to have you here.”

Hank lights up.

“I hope we don’t break up before the third movie.”

Hank becomes confused and slightly queasy.

“Charles, please share the memories with me already before these two continue with their glowing assessment of my character,” Erik says.

Charles can’t help but feel a tinge of pride that no matter the timeline or continuity, he has such a nuanced, righteous, and infinitely intriguing character to call his enemy and his friend. “All right, Erik,” he says, squeezing Erik’s hand for reassurance. “The author’s running out of ideas anyway.”

He touches Erik’s temple knowing that it will be their true starting point, but their path isn’t a straight one. Theirs is a circle, and when they travel the full circumference, instead of just a few days of memories he’ll be passing on to Erik, it will be half a century. And Charles is determined that he will make every day of them worth remembering.

-end-

**Author's Note:**

> Well, I tried. Hope it was a fun read.


End file.
